Hopscotch: Gold Coast

18 June 2018

I had added Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary into our itinerary on a Monday so it wouldn't be too crowded. Of course, Xena's animal adventure had started even before we left the house! She had discovered...

...the chickens!

Our hostess had also kept some chicken food, so Xena fed it to them. She was glad because apparently the eels had refused to come up for food that morning. Now you know, lady, how it feels when you offer someone food and they refuse it! Hmmmph!

It was our last day at our AirBnB, and Xena wrote this note for our hostess before we set off.

It was a short drive to Currumbin, and when we got there, I patted myself on the back. If it was this crowded on a Monday, I can't even imagine weekends and public holidays!

We got hold of the sanctuary map and headed to the bird show. We were running a late thanks to the hungry chickens, so we had missed the reptile show. The walk from the entrance to the bird show area was very very long and full of slopes, so by the time we reached the show had started. We were sitting in the front row and though we got the full brunt of the sun's rays, we were also really up, close and personal with the birds. Some of them were humongous!

I was blown away to see that the pelican's beak was as long as the trainer's arm!

I believe this was a wedge-tailed eagle.

The trainers were a funny lot. One of them spotted an ibis (we saw them literally every day, everywhere) trying to get on stage and said, “Just ignore him, he’s been unsuccessfully auditioning for the last four years.” The ibis really did have a disappointed look about him.

The colourful parrot listens to the trainer talk about conservation.

The shows were one after the other, so our plan was to see them all and then do some free and easy roaming around the park. It is huge, by the way, and I strongly recommend setting aside a whole day if you want to see everything, and especially if you go there with kids.

Next up was a bug show where the trainer showed us some really icky-sticky creepy-crawlies.

This thing is called a giant burrowing... COCKROACH! Native to Australia, it is the world's heaviest cockroach species, weighing up to 35 grams and measuring up to 8 cm in length! Boy, am I glad they don't live in houses!

Xena's first encounter with a stick insect

Blooie the blue-tongued lizard, phasmids, burrowing cockroach, kid volunteers were told here’s a cup for you, go over to the cafe next door and fill it up with whatever Mommy and Daddy want,

This is Blooie, the blue-tongued lizard.

Xena tries to mimic the lizard.

Next up was the sheep-shearing demo. The first time I'd seen something like this was in New Zealand in 2007 and I remember I was absolutely fascinated. However, Xena didn't seem to like it all that much and kept asking when we'd get out of there so she could go feed the kangaroos.

The shearer's hairpiece is just some freshly-shorn wool! He also shared with us some mind-blowing sheep-shearing records and how Australia is constantly trying to outdo New Zealand but those guys are just way faster. Check out the crazy stats here.

Koala alert!

Caught one climbing up the tree

There were many of them, all over the trees, and they were absolutely adorable!

Southern hairy-nosed wombat

The parrot enclosure was full of very beautiful and colourful birds.

These hopping kangaroos crossed our path, making Xena want to immediately stop and pet them, but we told her we'd come back to the kangaroos after the shows.

The crocodile show served as a good reminder of how powerful these creatures are. Brrrr!

They look so slow and lazy when soaking up the sun, but one snap of their jaws and it's the end.

Finally, we were done with all the shows and reached the section Xena had been waiting for. The kangaroos were free-roaming and for $4 you could buy food and hand-feed them.

Needless to say, Xena went completely nuts over the kangaroo-feeding. In fact, the next photos will show nothing but that.

Elderly volunteers were watching over the tourists to make sure they didn’t do any ridiculous stunts with the animals. One of them smiled and said to me, “That kangaroo your daughter is feeding... was refusing food from everyone else. But your daughter offered and it immediately ate. These animals know who is really nice and cares for them, and who just wants a photo.”

Sure enough, one of the kangaroos was literally holding Xena’s hands as she fed him. Every time she’d pause, he’d hold her hands and bring them to his mouth. It was super cute to watch.

She even insisted that one of them acted in a very human way because when she offered him food he shook his head and put up a paw to politely say “no”. It was an amazing experience feeding them.

I asked one of the volunteers how they made sure these guys weren’t overfed consisting the enthusiastic visitors to the park, and she said that the kangaroos were very good at self-regulating and would not accept food if they were full. Sure enough, many of them wouldn’t open their mouth when we offered the food (reminding me of Xena when she was 6 moths old, and 12 months old, and 18 months old....) and we had to go around to find one that was hungry enough to want to eat.

Many birds hovered around, trying to get their beaks on the fallen food. And there was a LOT of fallen food everywhere.

Xena didn’t wanna leave the kangaroo zone. Even after all the food she had was over, she wanted to go around petting them. I did too when one of the volunteers insisted and I realised how soft their fur is, I kinda expected it to be hard and bristly but it wasn’t at all.

Xena and I pose with a kangaroo.

Viv poses with a kangaroo and a joey.

A mommy kangaroo with her joey

We even saw an emu! Check out the avocado-like eggs! One of the volunteers told us that the numbered ones were fake eggs. I think the eggs are most likely hatched in an incubator and the sanctuary people substitute the ones they take with fake ones so the emu doesn't stop laying eggs.

We also caught a bit of the aboriginal dance show that happens every afternoon.

Giant crocodile at the entrance of the kids' play area

Xena loved the zipline!

While waiting for the lorikeet feeding at 4 pm, we went through the map to see if there was anything we had missed. There was an entire section on reptiles!

Can you spot the chameleon?

"Great snakes!" said my Tintin fan.

What a name -- the coastal common death adder!

Finally, it was 4 pm and we gathered in the lorikeet feeding area.

Hundreds of people had gathered. I didn't really know what to expect, but I thought maybe the trainers will feed the birds and we will watch. What really happened blew me away!

We were asked to pick up aluminium trays from a stack. Then the sanctuary staff poured a protein syrup mixed with honey into everyone's trays. As soon as that happened, a whole swarm of wild rainbow lorikeets suddenly descended upon us from the trees above! It was CRAZY. The birds were everywhere, on the trays, on your hands, shoulders and even your head. It was hilarious, cute and chaotic at the same time.

I started and got many many lorikeets on my tray and hands and quite a few scratches too. When we were on our way to our next accommodation, Xena said, how I wish there was a kangaroo waiting in our hotel room to greet us and I could just hug it to sleep!”

A rainbow lorikeet slurps up the liquid.

I wasn't kidding when I said many birds decided to perch on people's heads!

Viv with four lorikeets on him!

Considering the madness happening around us, obviously, there was no way we could take photos with the DSLR and I'm surprised Viv even managed to get this with his phone.

What a fantastic experience!

Of course, my entire hand had been scratched by the birds' claws as they clamoured to get to my tray.

There was a photo-op with a snake and I was surprised at how readily Xena agreed to hold the snake.

We pose with the snake. Brrr...

We were at Currumbin almost till closing time. Xena still hadn't had enough and wanted to come back the next day to feed the kangaroos and the lorikeets!

After convincing her that we still had lots of different things to see and do, we drove off to our next accommodation -- the Sheraton Grand Mirage resort. We took a quick shower and set off for dinner. We decided to walk around and find a place to eat.

It was coldddd even though we were all bundled up.

We had a yummy dinner at Hogs Breath Cafe.

During dinner, I casually asked her whether she’d like to work at a place like Currumbin when she grew up (at the moment, she wants to be a police dog trainer). "Yes," she said, "But nothing to do with lorikeets because they will sit on my head and scratch me!!!"